#10 A Vegetarian Goes Fishing

Published 8. Mai 2016

I remember how as a child, I used to go fishing with friends a lot. I knew about hegene, disembowling and descaling. Catching fish has always been the fun part though: As soon as it came to actually hitting the fish on the head with a branch, I chickened out. A few years later, I became vegetarian.

If you know me personally though, you’ve probably seen me trying sushi or eating a bit of salmon here and there. I’ve also been known to try quintessential local foods while travelling: satay, stingray, dumplings. So just for the record: I’m a bad vegetarian. (But even a bad vegetarian is still better than a regular carnivore amirite?)

If you’ve watched our latest video, you saw that I ate the fish that we’ve caught the same morning. Why? Let me tell you why. First of all: Fishing together with our neighbour has been an amazing experience. We went out in the morning, the weather was great, the lake belonged to us, we were on a boat, it was great. Catching a fish is such a thrill, you will definitely be drawn in.

Somehow, the only ugly part of fishing is when you actually have to kill the animal. These days, I think I’d be able to kill a fish, unlike when I was a child. And I still definitely don’t think that killing an animal for fun is the right thing to do. I also believe that it wouldn’t be necessary, if we were fully self-sufficient: We’d probably be able to grow enough plant-based protein to not rely on animal protein. But as for now, we’re not growing any beans, corn or anything like that. And we’re just trying out different forms of self-sufficiency lifestyles to see what fits to our livestyles.

Did I feel guilty for fishing? Somehow. Less than I’d like to tell you. It feels more right to go fishing on your own to enjoy a nice meal, than just buying some cheap sushi from a supermarket chain for a discount price. I don’t see myself doing it on the regular, but it’s fun. I grew up on the countryside and am used to all aspects of eating fish, even the ugly ones.But people who struggle with killing an animal but eat meat and fish daily, they seem more hypocritical to me than me being a „bad vegetarian“.